I'm Going To Give Up Soon. *added Picture*

[sparklefuzz]

OK, so swizzles died last week.. I had only had him a week and I kept his water clean etc so I don't blame myself... much.

I went away yesterday, for my birthday... came back a couple of hours ago, and Kamiko, my boy who I've had about a month (my avatar) has clamped fins, the end of his tail is dark red/brown and there is a split at the top, like a strand of tail on its own.. he was also looking a little grey towards the top of his head... and his tail has a couple of spots that kinda look more transparent than the rest of his tail. I showed him a mirror, so he'd flare and I could see better, but his top fin stayed clamped, his bottom fin spread a little... and his tail kinda spread, but it was almost like it was matted together and couldn't spread out?

I've changed his water, added some salt... and hubby has gone to buy some tetracycline. His greyness seems to have gone since his water change... my question is... I change about 90% of the water in his tank every 4-5 days, I feed sparingly, bloodworms and flakes, a little at a time so I know he is eating... and he was treated at the beginning of the week for fin rot and fungus, along with swizzles... who then died. What am I doing wrong?!

This picture is him flaring, compare to him in my avatar, his tail just looks 'glued' together. This was the most flared he got.

View attachment 37981

 

[Commander Cool]

Did you get them from the same lfs? If so maybe all the fish they have are diseased. Try a different lfs next time and see if that changes anything. GL with your fish.

 

[sparklefuzz]

No, Kamiko I got from my preferred lfs, who I get all my fish from and have had no problems... but swizzles, who only lasted a week was from a garden centre. :\ I suppose I just want to know if I am doing enough water changes and if theres somethign I should be doing, but am not... *sigh*

 

[e11cloud]

What size of a container is he in? Does he have filtration of any sort for his water? If not, I woud recommend doing water changes every 2 to 3 days for him and your other bettas, assuming they are in 3 gallons (sorry, I'm American and not very familiar with the metric system, something I should do in this hobby). If it's less, change it every day. Where you say the "extra tail" is, could that be poop by chance, since you said it looks brown? Any bloating that you've noticed? Post a pic if you can. Good luck. I hope he pulls through ok. I know it's devistating to lose a fish, and must be even worse when it happens with two in such a quick time frame...by chance, could your other fish have contaminated the other fish, i.e. were they in the same tank with a divider, etc....

 

[willtang3000]

what are your local waters like? it maybe there a little hard or have a high or low ph it helps to know and you can change it by using buffers

 

[sparklefuzz]

What size of a container is he in? Does he have filtration of any sort for his water? If not, I woud recommend doing water changes every 2 to 3 days for him and your other bettas, assuming they are in 3 gallons (sorry, I'm American and not very familiar with the metric system, something I should do in this hobby). If it's less, change it every day. Where you say the "extra tail" is, could that be poop by chance, since you said it looks brown? Any bloating that you've noticed? Post a pic if you can. Good luck. I hope he pulls through ok. I know it's devistating to lose a fish, and must be even worse when it happens with two in such a quick time frame...by chance, could your other fish have contaminated the other fish, i.e. were they in the same tank with a divider, etc....

He is in a 2g tank. I've just set up a divided filtered tank, 12g between 3 bettas, but he hasn't been put in there because of this problem.

Only the tip of his tail is brown... the part of the tail I was talking about is bright blue, same as him, just looks like someone took scissors and cut from the end to the base... like a little strip. Definitely not poop. I am treating him for bacterial fin rot anyway, so fingers crossed. Oh, and no bloating... everything normal otherwise... eating and swimming as normal.

I may not have been changing the water enough, I'll start doing it every other day.

what are your local waters like? it maybe there a little hard or have a high or low ph it helps to know and you can change it by using buffers

My water is fine, I test regularly with test strip... it is a little on the soft side, but nothing off the 'usual' scale.


His fins look kinda glued together, is this something I should be worried about?

 

[e11cloud]

Yes. Clamped fins are really not a good sign. He could be cold...do you have a heater in there? I am going to give you a link that you can refer to that may help. Hang in there! Also watch out for fin rot. He's definitely a little stressed. I hope this site helps.

Betta symptom and disease chart

 

[liz2]

I hope he is OK. My Ken who I got with really split fins goes through periods of looking ill, looses colour, clumped fins and tint splits. he responds to warmer water, stress control meds, and tiny bit of salt. He is better when I give him clean water but even then he sulks for a day..I know that he wont live very long so I just do the best I can for him. Which is all any of us can do.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Yes. Clamped fins are really not a good sign. He could be cold...do you have a heater in there? I am going to give you a link that you can refer to that may help. Hang in there! Also watch out for fin rot. He's definitely a little stressed. I hope this site helps.

Betta symptom and disease chart

He has a heater, it is at 80 degrees. He definitely has tail rot, one of the paler spots on his tail is an actual hole today... although he is still perky and eating well. Thanks for the site, I'll take a look.

I hope he is OK. My Ken who I got with really split fins goes through periods of looking ill, looses colour, clumped fins and tint splits. he responds to warmer water, stress control meds, and tiny bit of salt. He is better when I give him clean water but even then he sulks for a day..I know that he wont live very long so I just do the best I can for him. Which is all any of us can do.

I added salt yesterday when I changed his water. I also added silver proteinate, which I'll dose every 3 days after each water change. What should I be using for stress control?

I got two new bettas yesterday - had them reserved at the lfs to collect, and I am sooo worried, I daren't get attached to them.

 

[Synirr]

I had something similar to this in one of my juvies once, TriSulfa worked pretty well.... worth a shot, anyway

 

[liz2]

Dont give up..you go through periods of bad times with bettas...touch wood mine are ok at the moment. I have got some Stress Coat..fish and tap water conditioner got aloe vera and removes chlorine. Actually not much left I must put it on my list, trouble is I got this bottle from Norfolk when we were away, but I am sure you can get similar.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Dont give up..you go through periods of bad times with bettas...touch wood mine are ok at the moment. I have got some Stress Coat..fish and tap water conditioner got aloe vera and removes chlorine. Actually not much left I must put it on my list, trouble is I got this bottle from Norfolk when we were away, but I am sure you can get similar.

I use stress coat as a water conditioner, should I be adding more than I usually do to dechlorinate?

 

[e11cloud]

The directions on the stress coat tell you how to declorinate.

 

[sparklefuzz]

The directions on the stress coat tell you how to declorinate.

I meant for stress

 

[e11cloud]

The directions on the stress coat tell you how to declorinate.

I meant for stress

I'd try using twice the amount used for dechlorinating. The bottle has the directions for fin damage and slime coat. They also make stress zyme that goes with it for water quality, etc. I'd imagine with the salt you're doing fine plus the stress zyme...and you've gotten other meds. Hopefully he'll pull through.